Filipino man chops up wife, calls her 'Satan'

PHOTO: Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES - "I killed her to save all of us because she was Satan."

This was the reason given by a 43-year-old man who killed his wife of 16 years by hacking off her limbs and mutilating the rest of her body.

Neighbours of Orlando Estrera in Barangay Holy Spirit, Quezon City, called authorities on Sunday (Mar 11) after they saw him throwing out of their house mangled body parts.

When interviewed on Monday, Estrera told reporters that he did not regret killing his wife, 46-year-old Hiede, because she was the devil and could have been carrying in her womb the spawn of Satan.

"She was a nuisance to me because she was Satan. She told me herself that she was Satan," said Estrera whose interview with reporters was primarily filled with incoherent ramblings and religious references.

"He will undergo a psychological and psychiatric examination by a competent physician in order for us to know the state of his mental condition," said Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, director of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) who added that Estrera was facing a charge of parricide.

Eleazar told reporters that when he interviewed the suspect earlier, Estrera made no mention of Satan.

He told the QCPD chief that he killed his wife out of hatred that had built up during their 16-year marriage.

"He didn't display any remorse or regret," Eleazar said. "He is a danger to society and should not be out in public."

An initial drug test conducted by the QCPD Criminal Investigation Detection Unit showed Estrera to be negative for drugs, although he admitted using "shabu" (crystal meth) in 2002.

The couple both worked for a private Catholic school in Quezon City where Hiede was the head of maintenance. They moved to Metro Manila two years ago from Davao Oriental.

According to a report by Supt Rossel Cejas, Batasan police station commander, barangay and police officials went to Estrera's house around 5pm on Sunday.

This was after neighbours saw the suspect soaked in blood and throwing out clothes and his wife's mutilated body, including a severed hand, outside their house.

The report added that recovered from the scene were a 13-inch kitchen knife with traces of blood on its handle and a bloodstained hammer that was found under the victim's body.

Estrera told reporters that his wife was lying down when he stepped on her neck and then used the kitchen knife to "operate" on her.

This included opening up his wife's stomach to check if she was pregnant, Estrera said. The police later confirmed that Hiede was not. The couple did not have children.

Aside from cutting off her limbs, Estrera added that he had skinned his wife's face, gouged out her eyes and ate parts of her brain after he bashed her head in with the hammer.

Estrera, who is detained at the QCPD, was not on any barangay watch list for drugs.

But Senior Insp. Elmer Monsalve, head of the QCPD homicide section, said Hiede had repeatedly accused her husband of beating her up before Barangay Holy Spirit officials.